What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[gtaus]

I know loads of people who use "humanure" on their veg beds. I'm not at the moment but I've done it myself. It's not hard to get a compost heap up to a decent temperature.

Well, I posted that it's against the law here. So, I have never considered composting humanure. But I get so much chicken run compost, that I don't use it all. From a compost point of view, I have more than I need.

 

[Molpet]

but most of the regulations are a response to someone who did something wrong somewhere

They passed a law here to not blow grass on the rd when people mow. This never used to be a problem. People mowed in the first few passes and then mowed out so it blew over the already mowed.
Bikes and Motorcycle would hit the wet grass and wipe out. Cars crashed because they slid when braking.

 

[gtaus]

They passed a law here to not blow grass on the rd when people mow. This never used to be a problem. People mowed in the first few passes and then mowed out so it blew over the already mowed.
Bikes and Motorcycle would hit the wet grass and wipe out. Cars crashed because they slid when braking.

Perfect example of someone messing up on something simple and then a law has to be written to enforce what many of us would consider common sense. I have always made the first few passes around the edges of the property cutting the grass to the inside. Then after a few passes, reverse the mowing to send the grass clipping away from middle. But the grass would stay on the lawn at that point and not out on the road or sidewalk. I don't know if I was ever taught that, but it's just the way I always did it. Good to know that bad things could happen if you blew all that grass out on to the road.

FWIW, I have a battery operated leaf blower that I use after mowing and edging to blow any debris back on to the lawn. I did it just to make things look better. But I guess there is also a valid safety reason for it that I had never considered. So, thank you for that post.

 

[gtaus]

Simple Printer Maintenance - Fix Paper Uptake Problems

I just finished printing out a lot of tax related documents and towards the end of the project, my printer started to fail to uptake the paper. Yes, my old Samsung ML-2510 laser printer is almost 20 years old, but it still prints great. It's probably been since last year that I have had to touch up the uptake rubber roller inside the printer, so it grabs the paper and feeds it though for printing.

The Fix: I got a Q-tip from Dear Wife's stash and sprayed it down with some belt dressing I keep out in the garage. A few swabs on the rubber uptake roller cleaned it off nicely and it has been working great again.

If your printer is having a hard time loading paper, maybe you just need to clean off the rubber uptake roller(s) to bring it back to life.

Belt dressing is pretty cheap if you don't have a can in the garage. Probably less than $5.00 for a new can. In my case, I've had that can of belt dressing for over 10 years and it's still half full. Just needed a few squirts on a Q-Tip and that was all that was needed to clean and rejuvenate the uptake roller. Free fix for me.

BONUS TIP: I print out lots of temporary scratch sheets when I do my taxes. I have to write on the paper, make changes, etc... before I get everything right. That's a lot of wasted paper. However, I save my paper I get in the mail that might only be printed on one side. I put that into my printer to print out those scratch working papers that I use. Then, when I am done with that sheet, I shred it and use the paper shreds for coop litter, later into the composting process. Not only does it save me some money by using the back side of papers, but I'm recycling all that junk paper and making good use out of it, first as chicken coop litter, then for composting.

 

[Taranakian]

Literally billions of people around the planet eat food that has been fertilised with humanure. Humans have been using our own wastes to fertilise for centuries - probably since near on the dawn of agriculture. I'd much rather use my own, knowing that we don't take antibiotics, eat animals that have been pumped full of nasty things so they can survive the factory farming process, or put anything generally icky down our toilet than buy commercially grown food that's fertilised with 'bio-solids' sourced from the cities treatment facility chock full of nasty, environmentally persistent stuff.

I'm not advocating for it, but you could generally use raw humanure safely as long as you follow one simple rule:

- Don't sh*t where you eat. If you eat something raw, don't let that be in direct contact with uncomposted/unaged humanure.

Generally just letting it sit in a hole or a bucket for 6 months will take care of the worst things you're worried about - especially if you consistently eat foods with anthelmintic compounds. Composting is obviously safer.

I trust science, generally, but modern science has a terribly patronising way of not just ignoring, but also condemning the first-hand lived experience of literally billions of people throughout tens of thousands of years of human history because a simple common sense issue hasn't been proven and peer reviewed in a lab and I can't stomach that.

 

[FrostRanger]

Reseasoned my cast iron pan the other day and it looks amazing! Sure we have other pans too but my cast iron stuff is my favorite. I currently have a teapot with tea stove, a lodge frying pan and a small enameled dutch oven I got at a discount store around Christmas. We'll see how well the dutch oven holds up, I got it 'cause I loved the tea pot and frying pan so much that I wanted more cast iron. That and it was my favorite color lol. It's a bit small but honestly I don't need to be cooking huge meals anyways. I love how sturdy they are and how surprisingly easy they are to clean. Even the worst stuff can be cleaned out with just boiling hot water and a bit of dish soap. I even cook French toast in the pan and borscht in the dutch oven. Burnt sugar is no problem and the beet juice doesn't stain the enamel. A bit more expensive to start out with (other than the pan which was no more expensive than a cheap nonstick) but so so worth it. I plan on replacing my other equipment (at this point mainly baking sheets and casserole dishes) with cast iron. Wouldn't mind also having a larger dutch oven too but that's just a want, absolutely nothing wrong with the small one I have now

 

[gtaus]

Literally billions of people around the planet eat food that has been fertilised with humanure. Humans have been using our own wastes to fertilise for centuries - probably since near on the dawn of agriculture.

True.

I trust science, generally, but modern science has a terribly patronising way of not just ignoring, but also condemning the first-hand lived experience of literally billions of people throughout tens of thousands of years of human history because a simple common sense issue hasn't been proven and peer reviewed in a lab and I can't stomach that.

Well, I am a Registered Nurse as well as other things. They kind of make you into a germaphobe on purpose. We are constantly washing our hands to rid ourselves of germs. But that was not common practice until the mid-1800's. People can spread a lot of germs to other people. I had to deal with every day in the hospital. So, my nursing background taints my view of using humanure on food crops unless composted at very high heat.

FWIW, I use my chicken run compost with chicken manure on all my garden beds. It's not likely that germs will jump from one species to another in that case. I'm all for composting animal manures.